


and it is you i shall know

by farfetched



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Getting Together, M/M, Multiple Soulmates, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-15
Updated: 2019-02-15
Packaged: 2019-10-29 05:32:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17801939
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/farfetched/pseuds/farfetched
Summary: Justin has two soulmarks; one, of course, is Holster, and they are best bros. The other remains a mystery, but perhaps not for much longer...





	and it is you i shall know

**Author's Note:**

  * For [pugglemuggle](https://archiveofourown.org/users/pugglemuggle/gifts).



> This is a pinch hit for pugglemuggle! Hope you like it, and sorry things took so long!

Justin is not one to worry about his soulmate marks. 

He’s lying about that, of course. Who would he be kidding? He’s worried about them since he was about three. He’s perfectly and exactly marked both of them, mapped them out and wondered exactly to whom they belong, who they connect him to. 

There is a fractal spiralling out in a pale gold, on his left wrist. Justin traces it whenever he gets nervous. He’s learnt it by touch, although it makes no indent on his skin. He wants to know them, wants to find out why they are connected to him, the exact lengths of that connection and how they might both benefit from it. 

He’s read a lot of soulmate horror stories. Ones where one killed the other. Ones where they tried to rip the other marks off the other, for terror of losing them. 

He meets Holster, and all his fears in that department are allayed. 

Holster is a giant, blond teddy bear in personality. Holster is everything Justin needed and more, and they just get each other, and they might have their fights but they come out the other side far stronger; by the end of their first year, they are inseparable, and as much Ransom&Holster as they are separate people. Justin had never thought being a duo might be so comforting. 

His other still concerns him though. He’d not even noticed it immediately, such that it is only a few shades darker than his skin, but at some point he’d caught sight of it and mapped that one too. It is small, etched onto his ribs, and ripples along with them. 

It is an outline of a triangle, simple. No flourishes, no anythings, just three straight lines connected each at the corners. It is close to his heart, and he holds it when he’s sad. Keeps a hand on it and imagines that the person on the other end might do the same. He holds it when his heart races, holds it when he’s happy, holds it when he’s angry. He hopes it might be a calming influence, an anything that helps. 

He’s always looking. Looking at people, those sites where people share their marks in the hopes of finding each other, although he’s never managed to find the courage to do that. Between studying and hockey he doesn’t get much time, but he looks nonetheless. Maybe if he watches enough vines, enough stupid videos on the internet, he’ll find the person that it matches. He looks in locker rooms, knowing that the location will match. He watches footage of NHL teams, trying to find if it’s there. A pipedream, of course, but they could be anyone at all. He looks at parties, looks in the summer when people lose clothing, studies each of his dates and looks and looks and never finds it. 

But he will someday. He’s sure. 

When Tater visited the Haus, he’d been too nervous to even look too much at him. It’s too new, this crush, and his heart flutters up to his mouth uncomfortably when Tater looks at him, and it is just- too much. Too new, and Holster laughs at him afterwards. Their only contact had been a shouted farewell out of a window, too afraid to even check for a response, and doesn’t he regret that. 

Holster teases him later that Tater could be his Other. Justin elbows him hard in the stomach. It would be way too much. Too much of a coincidence; too much good luck, too many planets aligning if it was. Justin doesn’t even know if they get on, because he could barely even say a word to Tater’s face. It’s unlikely. It’s very unlikely. It’s impossible, even, but it doesn’t stop the _hope_. 

His brain won’t quite let it go, and so he spends a lot more time on Falconer’s promotional stuff, hoping for glimpses of Tater, and confirmation. Confirmation either way, but he hopes for positive confirmation.

He finds that the Falconers don’t have too many locker room videos. Whenever they do, Tater is already changed, or obscured. Justin traces the triangle, over and over, and wonders. 

It is only fuelled by the fact that Tater keeps visiting with Jack. 

Justin is sure it’s more to do with Bitty’s pies than anything Justin has done, but his courage grows regardless, sidling closer and closer to real conversation. It starts with greetings, and Justin not actually running away; it moves to Justin being able to be in the same room without panicking, and then sat on the same couch, then slowly to conversations. Tater is so enthusiastic about everything (and so oblivious to Justin’s nervousness) that it is surprisingly easy. 

Although it inevitably ends up with someone mentioning the rink is free, coming up with weird ideas and a small amount of alcohol goes a long way to convince people. 

It results in them all skating stupid drills – things like who can skate a decent looking dick on the ice, all things good and nice like that (Tater does pretty well at that. Bitty fails, spluttering). Mostly it ends up with everyone trying to beat Jack and Tater – and doing a surprisingly good job at times. Holster decides to be intensely irritating, and keeps trying to create ever more idiotic situations that Tater and Justin have to be on the same team. Worse, Tater just doesn’t get what Holster is meaning when he does it and merrily goes along with it, however stupid. At least he doesn’t catch Justin’s rude gestures and faces over his head to Holster, knowing exactly what game Holster is playing. 

But it’s a bit too close, a bit too tipsy for Justin to cope. Holster’s got them doing some very stupid paired things, and it’s just ridiculous and Tater is so close to him-

Until Justin can’t quite stand it. 

He announces that he’s going off to get changed, pretending he’s got things to do, and skates off, trying not to look upset. He doesn’t realise he’s been followed until he’s torn his shirt off in irritation, hears the door slam shut, and turns. 

It’s Tater. Of course it is. His eyes track immediately from Justin’s face to the gold fractal on his wrist, obvious and flashy. He draws closer, peering at it. 

“Is only soulmark?” Tater asks, his head at an odd angle, and approximately in line with Justin’s heart. It is oh so easy, and yet heart-wrenching and nerve-wracking, to point to the triangle. But he does it anyway, because he wants to know. Maybe it’s his only chance.  
“No. That one is Holster’s, this… I haven’t matched.” He murmurs, heart not behind the mark at all as it takes up residence in his mouth. This is make or break. Tater will know. Tater will have the power to tell him they match, or not. Tell him they don’t match, or not. He doesn’t have to say anything, and Justin will not know if he is being truthful about it either. 

He is more invested in a positive answer than he wants to be. 

Tater’s eye slide over to it, and squint, picking it out from his skin. 

His eyes widen, and a smile breaks out onto his lips, and all Justin can think is _beautiful_.  
Tater snaps to a standing position, and fights to get out of his hockey equipment, layer after layer coming off until Tater is standing there just as shirtless as Justin, and he presses his fingers lightly next to a mark. A mark identical to Justin’s. A perfect outline of a triangle, just where his heart should be. 

Justin lifts his eyes to meet Tater’s. 

“We’re… soulmates?” It is too much. Too much to hope for, too much to believe. But Tater’s eyes shine, and he grins widely. He swoops forward to engulf Justin in a hug, and it is almost as good as one of Holster’s. He lifts Justin up and spins him around, ignoring the shed hockey gear at their feet. Justin’s heart is beside itself. 

“Soulmate! We finally meet! Have been waiting long time!” Tater yells, gleeful.

Justin’s mind is caught up in the skin contact, the contact between their marks seeming to fizzle with energy. He wants to worry, but also not, so stunned he cannot barely think. He doesn’t know if he even can worry, for once. He can feel Tater’s muscles constricting to hold him tightly, and it feels like standing atop a mountain for sunrise, akin to mastering a huge wave, akin to flying, even though he is only centimetres from the ground. It is all he hoped for and more, and he wants more than anything to tell Holster, but he also wants to keep it to himself for a bit, to savour it, because he is _never this lucky_. 

Tater eventually stops spinning, although Justin’s mind no longer follows the physical world, caught in its own spirals of glee. He can cope with this. He’ll do more than just cope with this. And the look in Tater’s eyes when Justin finally reopens his is- well, it seems to imply there could be some good directions to this. Justin is thoroughly looking forwards to exploring them, to their fullest extent, if he gets the chance. 

He thinks, hopes, that he will.

**Author's Note:**

> Well, it's one of two fics. I wasn't sure which to post, one I finished up but didn't write specifically for this, and this one I did, but it's not quite as polished. So.... have both! The more the merrier, right?


End file.
